Kidney Transplantation From 1119 Deceased Donors in Finland, 1991 to 2003: Impact of Donor Factors

We assessed the effect of donor factors on the recovery and quality of cadaveric kidney transplant function. During 1991 to 2003, 2006 kidney grafts were derived from 1119 heart-beating donors in Finland. The annual mean age of donors increased from 33 to 46 years, with a significant decrease in the proportion of high-energy trauma and gunshot wounds and with an increased proportion of donors with coronary disease, hypertension, or cardiopulmonary resuscitation and surgical/radiological interventions before death. The transplant team’s share of kidney retrievals increased from 50% to nearly 100%. In uni- and multivariate analyses all these factors had significant effects on the onset and quality of early graft function; however, this effect practically vanished by 1 year posttransplant. Of all studied donor factors, only donor cytomegalovirus (CMV) status significantly affected long-term survival, with donor CMV-positive grafts having 5% worse survival at 5 years. The 1-year graft survival improved from 90.9% to 96.2% and mean 1-year creatinine decreased from 121 μmol/L to 109 μmol/L during these 13 years, showing that the worsening trends in donors quality were compensated by improvements in other aspects of the process.